Adrian flipped the safety switch on the pocket pistol and eased its hammer into resting position while Silver made contact with the rest of the squad. [i]He was way too eager to pull a gun on us,[/i] he thought, as he looked down at the capybara on the floor and stowed the new weapon in his bag, [i]Didn’t even ask any questions either. Just ran for the phone.[/i]

“Alright, smooth operator, get over here,” Adrian grunted, and lifted the man into a free chair when Silver passed him a cable. He threaded the cable through a few holes in the piece of furniture and tied his arms together around the back, with a neat triple knot around his wrists. He found a roll of duct tape hidden one on of the many drawers around the room, and wrapped a short length of it around the man’s head, covering up his mouth. To be extra sure, Adrian found a pair of heavy zip ties in one of his bag’s pockets and used them to lash the man’s ankles to the legs of the chair.

Outside, Adrian stood on lookout, doing his best to make sure nobody tailed the two of them, with one ear strained toward Silver, so that he could eavesdrop on coms that didn’t come to his own ear piece. He was only able to pick up bits and pieces of the other side, but it was obvious what was going on. “Captain, I just had a thought,” he said, “If that’s the Imperial princess, and the folk after them are from the Empire, why are we getting involved? A lot of this has skimmed over my head. I mean, what do we do when we’ve found the guest of honor?”